Michele Bachmann Reacts To Encounter With Elijah, 8-Year-Old With Gay Mother

Republican presidential candidate and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) reacted on Glenn Beck's radio show Tuesday to an incident last week where an 8-year-old approached her at a book signing for her new memoir in South Carolina and told her that his mom is gay.

"My mommy -- Miss Bachmann, my mommy's gay, but she doesn't need fixing," said the visibly anxious boy, identified only as Elijah, quietly after Bachmann leaned her ear next to his face. The boy walked away and Bachmann waved goodbye.

"How do you navigate in that kind of world where you're being -- I think -- set up to look like a homophobe. Are you a homophobe?" Beck asked Bachmann.

"Of course not. I believe that we love all people, I love everyone. I don't necessarily agree with them," she replied. She added that she treated the mother and child in accordance with the Golden Rule. "Continually the agenda-driven community wants to climb up on my platform and make their issue my issue and paint me as someone that I'm not," she said.

"I think it's shameless to use a little boy, and put that little boy forward to advance an agenda issue," she said. Gay rights activist and author Dan Savage, who has a child, also said it was inappropriate to use a child to confront Bachmann. "Even if that 8-year-old kid wanted to do it, even if confronting Michele Bachmann was the kid's idea, even if the kid was excited about being in a YouTube video ... this just isn't cool," he wrote.

Bachmann added that she does not believe in civil unions or same-sex marriage. She did not, however, have a problem with contractual agreements between same-sex couples. "When you go into the hospital you can designate who you want to have come," she said. "Whether you're heterosexual or homosexual you can have contracts," she added.

She asserted that gays and lesbians do have access to marriage, but to members of the opposite sex, a line she also used last week at an Iowa high school. "They have access to the same laws of marriage, but the restrictions apply to everyone -- you have to marry someone from the opposite sex."

Comments

[smart8001]

01:30 PM on 12/17/2011

Of GOP candidates' spouses, I don't know which oine makes me the most uncomfortable- Mrs. Newt Gingrich III with her cement hair or Mr. Michele (out of the closet) Bachman

[piscesnnj]

11:35 AM on 12/17/2011

Beck asked..." Are you a homophobe?'
A honest answer by Bachmann would have been... " Yes, I am."
By definition... Homophobe/homophobic... an irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals
I think that is Bachmann's position... her's and just about every other Republican/conservative politician.

[hazlnut]

11:54 AM on 12/11/2011

That's right, Babs, when you make bigoted statements against gays, you hurt children.

[Drpryr]

04:35 PM on 12/09/2011

She's just mortified that an 8-year old kid has more sense than she does.

[Corban]

02:44 PM on 12/09/2011

The song from Team America, "I'm so Lonely" pops in my head when I see this lady. Her and Ann Coulter.

[piscesnnj]

11:21 AM on 12/17/2011

LOL... I never put the two together before but you are so right. Thanks I needed that

[piscesnnj]

11:37 AM on 12/17/2011

look up "Darlene McBride, MadTV,Take back America Tour" on Youtube... It could be her too

[Netta Chinn]

01:53 PM on 12/09/2011

''Not all cultures are equal.''

'(Gay marriage) is probably the biggest issue that will impact our state and our nation in the last, at least, thirty years. I am not understating that.''

''Normalization (of gayness) through desensitization. Very effective way to do this with a bunch of second graders, is take a picture of 'The Lion King' for instance, and a teacher might say, 'Do you know that the music for this movie was written by a gay man?' The message is: I'm better at what I do, because I'm gay.''

"How do you navigate in that kind of world where you're being -- I think -- set up to look like a homophobe." - Michelle

In the words of Jay-Z, "We Don't Believe You, You need more People"

[HonestAnswer]

01:36 PM on 12/09/2011

I think there needs to be a new word used instead of homophobe. There are people who are afraid of gay people, who are uncomfortable with any thing "other" and they are homophobes. But Michelle Bachmann is not afraid of gay people. You can not be afraid of something that you have contempt for and feel far superior to. To use the word homophobe let's Michelle Bachmann get off too easily and in a way implies there is something valid to be afraid of; the way an arachnophobe is afraid of spiders and indeed there are some big scary spiders out there.
No, let's change the veracular and call it was it is- BIGOTRY and HATRED towards gay people!!
Midhelle Bachmann,are you ad HOMO-BIGOT !?!?!?!

[Seriously Now]

03:22 PM on 12/09/2011

Ok, you can take the words bigotry,hatred, homo-bigot,..and sling it at Michele Bachman.
I totally agree with you. In return can you all do me a much appreciated, love you for it, favor?

Give me back the word gay. You have the distorted it's true meaning.
I love that word.
My fond memories all include being gay.
I'd sing my favorite Christmas carol and it describes true gayness.
I loved being gay. I would wake up with a big smile and would say to myself, I am soooo gay!!!
I'd look up at the stars when camping and knew that the Universe was gay!
My life was so wonderful, shameless, and truly gay.
Then one day, the neighborhood changed, being gay was no longer that innocent, pure, bright way of looking at life, and others.
It was taken away from me, and now I want it back.
So, please....say all the mean nasty things against Michele.
Cut her to pieces with all your power.
I am sure she is one to meet you half way.
All I want is for you to liberate the word GAY...give it back it's true meaning.
...just say'n

[HonestAnswer]

04:22 PM on 12/09/2011

My dear,
You absolutely positively without question can have the word GAY back. I actually never liked it anyway because it I think it trivializes a much stronger and more powerful thing than "light and gay" could ever impart.
Please take it!! The word "gay" is yours to carol with all you want!!!
Now I have a little favor to ask too....
How about sharing the word "marriage" ???
Would you please

[Neenerpuss]

10:55 PM on 12/10/2011

Seriously Now, are you an Indian Giver? The term "gay" was given to us...not something we took.

[squat6971]

01:30 PM on 12/09/2011

Meh. All shameless calculation. Who knows what she -- or any of them -- really believe?

[Seriously Now]

03:11 PM on 12/10/2011

NewsFlash!:
In simple terms, she is saying that marriage should be the committed union of one human penis, and one human vagina...that's what "them" believe too.

[chriscarrrr]

06:13 PM on 12/13/2011

True. DADT gets repealed but a tax increase on the wealthiest Americans can't get traction? Smoke and mirrors.

[RickInMichigan]

11:34 AM on 12/09/2011

You can easily see through the Bachmann's claim that gays the same rights she has. Except for the tiny fact that she was able to marry the person she loved and she will do whatever she can to prevent a gay person from marrying the person they love.

[erdkz2389]

02:17 AM on 12/10/2011

If you look close enough, you can see that she is actually part dragon. Sometimes, you can even catch glimpses of smoke coming out her nostrils.

[Neenerpuss]

11:00 PM on 12/10/2011

She is a lost cause...she knows if gay marriage becomes legal....Marcus will flutter away and marry a man....this is the only thing keeping her marriage together. That's pathetic!

[Seymourhiney]

11:09 AM on 12/09/2011

11pages of her book are still in the outhouse, at lleast for now.

[gaydood]

10:54 AM on 12/09/2011

i dont like her lifestyle

[Netta Chinn]

01:38 PM on 12/09/2011

I want her to add layers....

[robmclaughjr]

10:25 AM on 12/09/2011

I consider her my enemy. An enemy of the United States.

[Angel Wood-Morton]

10:24 AM on 12/09/2011

Bachmann: "I'm not a homophobe, look at all my gay friends! Oh, wait...never mind."

In her defense, she did marry Marcus, so there has to be some gay love in her somewhere.

[demisfine]

10:00 AM on 12/09/2011

Last week, Bachmann said gays were free to marry, as long as they entered into a heteroexual marriage.
It's all about pretending to be something you are not, for the sake of appearances.
Your sincere meaning and belief should be nurtured in private.
What you show to society should be what society wants to see.
It's the republican code.

[StephenBP]

11:50 AM on 12/09/2011

Isn't it though. I think you may have uncovered a unifying principle in Republican and generally, right wing authoritarianism. Perception is more important than reality. And I think that there is something about the fact that their internal value system is often a cobbled together mess of mutually exclusive, multiply incongruous beliefs, far too deep and dark for them to deal with in the light of day for fear the whole mess will collapse. But if they are able to focus mainly or only on suface appearances, well, then they can make it all work somehow. Making things look, on the surface, to be consistent is far, far easier than making them actually be consistent through and through.

Michelle is truly an intellectual light weight and her alcohol and drug addled buddy Glenn really needs education in learning how to separate tin foil fantasy from reality.

[demisfine]

12:30 PM on 12/09/2011

Nailed them.
I look this way, so I must be this.
It is shallow and it defines exactly who they are.
If you appear other, you must be other.
They are the most judgmental, materitalistic people you will ever meet.
And they are the first to call out others as un-patriotic, un-Christian, un-American.
Bachmann is the worst.

[piscesnnj]

11:51 AM on 12/17/2011

Excellent point. I think that is true of politics and politicians in general.

[AAHewetson]

01:17 PM on 12/09/2011

Is it possible that she is making a veiled reference to Marcus' decision to marry a woman?

[opinioned1]

09:54 AM on 12/09/2011

My description --I would call her a slug.